After four days of air strikes, Israel is likely to launch a ground assault against the Islamic militant group Hamas as the country has sent “infantry, armoured soldiers, artillery corps”, plus 300,000 reservists, close to the Gaza border. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said that the reservists sent close to the Gaza Strip are “getting ready to execute the mission” that has been given by the Israeli government.

While the IDF didn’t reveal the details of the mission, it said it is to make sure “Hamas at the end of this war won’t have any military capabilities by which they can threaten or kill Israeli civilians”. The death toll in Israel has soared up to 1,200 with an overwhelming majority of civilians and more than 2,700 people are wounded, of them some are said to be in a serious condition.

Israel-Hamas war: 10 points

1. Palestinian Health Ministry has said that at least 950 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched its air strikes on Saturday.
2. Israel has stepped up its attacks on Hamas targets and IDF has taken full control of Gaza border. Several attempts to infiltrate the border have been foiled by Israeli Defence Forces and a dozen Hamas militants have been killed while trying to cross the barrier.
3. According to reports, rockets were fired from Syria into Israel but IDF has not provided more details on that. Missiles were also fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah, killing an IDF official and two other soldiers. In retaliation, Israel has destroyed several Hezbollah posts in Lebanon near the contested border and killed a number of Hezbollah militants.
4. The IDF has warned the fighting will intensify and that the scenes from Gaza “will be more difficult to understand and cope with” in the coming days.
5. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his latest statement, has said that the surprise Hamas assault was one of the worst attacks on Jews since the Holocaust and termed Hamas attackers worse than ISIS.
6. Israeli Air Force spokesman Daniel Hagari has said that along with air strikes, they are also using ground-based rocket launchers. This is the first time since 2006 conflict Israel has used such launchers against Hamas.
7. Meanwhile, shocking details of a massacre in an Israeli village have emerged – with an IDF official claiming that around 40 babies were killed by Hamas militants. Some of the babies, according to the IDF official, were beheaded.
8. “It’s not a war,” General Itai Veruv, head of the IDF’s Depth Command, told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s not a battlefield. You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists kill them. It’s not a war… it’s a massacre,” he added.
9. Israel has declared a war against Hamas and has been carrying out retaliatory strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip since Saturday.
10. The Israeli action came in response to a brutal air and ground assault in Israel by Hamas. Hundreds of Hamas militants invaded Israel last Saturday and killed children, their mothers and fathers. The militants also kidnapped more than 100 civilians and took them to Gaza.